Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas dear readers,

Since starting this blog at the end of October, it’s been a blast. 67 posts, and a handful of subscribers, and some great feedback.

My plan for 2010 is to post more content, but a little less often. That way the commentary will be more considered, the insights a little sharper.

I must just give kudos to Posterous… if you’ve wanted to start a blog, but been put off because you worried about the technicalities, give Posterous a go. It’s as simple as sending an email.

I’m not going to do a Top 10, (Maybe next year!) but here are my 3 most popular posts of 2009 (to date)! Check ’em out if you’ve missed anything.

No.3 What Matters Now – with Free PDF download

No.2 Festive Font of the Week – Aeronaut

No.1 Creating a memorable brand with creative juxtaposition (Caroline’s Effluent Services)

Enjoy the festivities, see you at the other end.

Peace, love, and all that.

cj

The Evolution of the Apple Mouse

Ok, so I’m a bit obsessed with the Apple Mouse. I’ve written about it before. Sadly old enough to have used the original Desktop Bus Mouse (on a Mac Plus), I’ve always like the simplicity of design, and although I consider myself a bit of a ‘Power User’ (always loved that term!) I still appreciate the aesthetic purity of only having one button to press. I even liked the much maligned “puck” that came with the original iMac. The latest Mighty, and now Magic Mouses (yes, that is the correct plural) added multi-button functionality, while retaining simplicity and elegance of design, the Magic Mouse through a (world’s first) multi-touch interface I’ve yet to experience. Have you? If so, please let me know how you got on in the comments.

Anyway, enough of the preamble, here’s the meat. Flickr poster Rameko (apologies for the unimaginative bio, all I’ve been able to find out about him is he’s male and ‘taken’ – sorry girls!)  has posted some images of how the Apple Mouse has evolved over the 25 years of it’s existence.  And I think they’re fantastic.

Link to the stream here. Via CultOfMac.

(Free!) Font of the Week… Calluna

Calluna is packed with gorgeous, classical goodness. Next time you were planning on setting something in Trajan, or (heaven forfend) Times Roman, why don’t you do yourself a favour and just see what it looks like in Calluna Regular. And do yourself another one, make use of the extensive ligature options. And it won’t cost you a red cent, as it’s completely free, here. 

Calluna is designed by self taught Dutch type designer Jos Buivenga, the talent behind the versatile Museo family… a face you can also get a free taster of, in three weights. 

Of course, they’d like you to buy the entire family. You might just be tempted. 

If you downloaded (the also FREE) “What Matters Now” and read Seth Godin’s article on generosity, you’ll get it.

Clue: self taught type designer Jos Buivenga is now one of the best selling designers on MyFonts. 

Ten great fonts for under a tenner

You can get some pretty good fonts for free… (my favourite resource is French site daFont). If you need something quick and dirty for a one-off project, you can often get hold of something that will get the job done.

If you do go down the paid for route, you will get a more professional result, and you don’t always have to pay top dollar. Here’s a set of funky and decent quality fonts, all bursting with personality, that won’t break the bank.

1. Earmark – A mega fatface – great for posters and t-shirts

Available here, $7.95

2. Stampete – A nice distressed rubber stamp font

Also from MyFonts… a snip at $9

3. Streitkraft – A rather funky stencil – with loads of options

Each cut will cost you a beastly  $6.66

4. Glengary – Pure 1950’s brushscript!

Only $7.95 here.

5. Samegang – A different slant… one of the best graffiti style fonts I’ve seen.

Just sneaks in under the $10 at $9.99 here.

6. Silicone – For a cool, modernist look 

Available in every weight you’ll ever need (14 of them!) at $8.95 a pop. here.

7. Mia Pets – Funky animals, robots and mythical creatures dingats. 62 of ’em.

$9.A worth-it bargain.

8,9,10. REM Collection – So I cheated… but these were co-created by Michael Stipe from the band, and the collection contains 3 fonts, each of which has been used by the band

£28 for the three… that works out at just over £9 each. from Veer, rather than MyFonts for a change.

Great Social Media Infographic

From Elliance. Doesn’t need any further explanation (that’s why it’s such a great infographic!).

(Festive) Font of the week – Aeronaut

Bit of a festive one here… Auronaut is a ‘Neogothic’ typeface that to me, at least is quintessentially Pugin-esque. What do I mean by that then? Well, it’s got ‘Arts & Crafts’ elements that soften the often quite harsh elements of a typical Blackletter face. And it’s one of those faces that even though it’s clearly based on historical models somehow seems quite contemporary. This makes this kind of font incredibly flexible I think – something you can use for everything from neo-Victorian style Christmas cards to Biker tattoos, and lots of stuff in between. And with Steampunk being all the rage these days, perhaps it’s not so surprising that Auronaut is currently No.3 on the MyFonts Best Seller page.

For some reason the designer, Georg Herold-Wildfellner (he’s also the designer of the delicately elegant Ivory font) has chosen to call the swashes on the face ‘Parachutes’ and there is the option of creating easy bi-color designs. It’s all explained on the MyFonts website. The font costs a not unreasonable $39. If you want the bi-colour version, you need to stump up $34 for the ‘Base’ version, and $5 each for the ‘Parachute’ and ‘Balloon’ (even longer, more ornate swashes) cuts.

What Matters Now

Seth Godin, the marketing expert, some say guru, blogger, and author of books such as Permission Marketing, Purple Cow and All Marketers are Liars (amongst others, they’re just my favourites) thinks that we need to have a “Different way of thinking”. Now more than ever. 

So what did he do? Got 70 “big thinkers” or some of the most influential people on the planet (or on the internet, which is much the same thing), and asked them to write a page each, on what they think matters now, today. He’s curated it into an eBook, and he’s giving it away. Free. No strings*. 

Let’s just backtrack a minute. We’ve got people like Tom Peters, Chris Anderson, Guy Kawasaki and Kevin Kelly (and 66 or so others), sharing their inner thoughts, the inside track on how we should be thinking, acting, and doing business. This is stuff most of us would happily pay for. And it’s free.

Why free? Well the answer is in Seth’s first article, Generosity. If I could sum it up in a (his) sentence it’s “The more you give, the more you get”. But don’t sit here reading my take on it, download it for yourself and see what all the fuss is about. Did I mention it was free?

*Everybody who has contributed has a book coming out, or already out, or a blog they want you to read. But you don’t have to. Personally, and I think you can judge a lot from their one page ‘manifesto’s’ and I’ve certainly put a new names on my reading list for 2010. And you’ll be doing yourself a favour if you sign up for Seth’s blog. Seriously.

I’m sharing a copy of the eBook here. Pass it on.

what-matters-now-1.pdf

Wim Wenders for Leica

I’ve posted before about the iconic Leica brand. Here’s a video I stumbled across featuring Wim Wenders that makes the point more eloquently than I ever could.

Creating a memorable brand with creative juxtaposition

When it comes to creating a brand, the accepted wisdom is to analyse the industry you are in and develop a brand identity that resonates with what you do. Your logotype, typography and colour palette should all support that. Well, Caroline (if she exists), has done the opposite, and come up with the following identity. The result… they get noticed and talked about. There’s even a Flickr group snapping pictures of their tankers. And if people notice you and talk about you, people remember you, you probably get more business.

I wonder if it worked for Carolines Effluent Services, I bet it has

Sometimes doing the opposite of what everybody expects (and everybody else does) just works.

 

EDIT: Just came across a great image on FrasersFotos…check it out here

 

Photo credits: Tom T and Withlouis

 

 

Hack your stuff better

How can Sugru improve (or “hack”) your life? Up to you really. Looks like a wonder product to me, can’t wait to get my hands on some!

Keep up to date with Sugru hack at their blog.